Caritas Europa remembers Hermann Icking

Hermann Icking

Caritas Europa is paying tribute to its former secretary general Hermann Icking, who died this month, ten years ago. Mr Icking, who helped expand Caritas in eastern Europe, was only 52 when he died of cancer, on 10 February 2002. He had been working for six years as secretary general for Caritas Europa.

"Despite the tragedy, we experienced a lot of grace as a family during his illness," said his wife, Irmgard Icking. "I appreciate a lot that he is still remembered at Caritas Europa. He was highly committed to Caritas. He helped establish offices in countries east of the Berlin Wall where, at the time, it was illegal to establish Catholic churches," she said.

"He travelled a lot to Russia, Poland and Czech Republic and tried to pick up the languages because he was so enthusiastic about Caritas Europa in that region. He really wanted Caritas Europa to share its rich experiences of Western Europe over there."

The president of Caritas Europa Enry Gillen, said they shared many friends from their youth and, although they did not meet until years later, he believed they had both attended a big youth event in Germany.

"He was like a philosopher because he had thousands of ideas. He made me realise that people come first, rather than company structures, which are just tools but not an end on their own.

"If you want to win people, it's all about how you enter into dynamics and how you address them. Hermann did just that. He was a typical youth animator," he said.

"It was a joy to work with Hermann Icking and to share his friendship," said Denis Viénot, former Caritas Europa president said in a tribute. "It was a joy to know such an honest man and such a motivated Christian."

"The love of languages, the love of speaking them well and using them at every opportunity was the love and choice of a man who was for communication, a man who liked to find out about and listen to others and a man who was open to the World," he said.

"Hermann Icking was a man deeply embedded in his German culture but one who also lived outside borders, and fed with fervour on inter-cultural issues. Caritas Europa owes a lot to his knowledge of changes within European institutions and his sense of the Church in Europe, said Mr Viénot.

"His personality and influence inspired the members of this team and urged them on. His spirit moved them to implement his vision of a professional organisation founded on a spiritual dimension."

Mr Icking had a degree in sociology, psychology and education and was fluent in English, French, Dutch, Spanish and German. He worked in Germany for CIDSE, a Catholic group of 16 European and North American agencies that fight poverty, before he worked for Caritas Europa.had extensive experience of pan-European and third world political advocacy before joining Caritas Europa. He also contributed to the first Caritas Europa report on poverty.

"We both had our roots in youth movements and were very committed to the Church and to building the Kingdom of Heaven, something which really bound us,"said Mrs Icking.

She worked as head of the Asian department in MISEREOR, a German Catholic Bishops' organisation that deals with poverty in Africa, Asia and Latin America, for 23 years before they married.

After her husband died, Mrs Icking worked for Missio, a German Catholic organisation involved in missionary work. They have two children who study at Freie Universität Berlin. Magdalena, 22, is studying geography and Johannes, 30, is doing his PhD in political science.